When it rains...

Snapping a rear derailleur last week wasn't enough, so I had to smack a tree and tweak an XTR brake lever at Elk River on Sunday as well. Luckily, Curly was able to bend it back into functionality again, so I didn't have to shell out for a new one. If you're looking for good mechanics, go to Now Bikes in Arden Hills and ask for Mike or Curly.

Mini Man Utd kit

My wife rules! Baby's gonna be rockin' the full-on Manchester United kit. Real deal, direct from the UK. Awesome.

24 Hours of Afton

No race for me, gotta focus on the MNSCS. Got a few pics tonight of the first 2 laps. Curly, busting out the wheelie. Brian from Peace Coffee is drilling it on lap one. Clayton and Matt are rockin' it solo (and giving me crap for not doing the same). Jeremy near the end of lap one. Gnome base camp. I wish I was racing, but I'm happy to be sleeping in my own bed tonight. More photos and updates tomorrow.

MNSCS

Despite a complete meltdown at Afton, a disappointing race at Red Wing and an exploding derailleur at the Powder Monkey, I'm sitting in third. Ryan will definitely bump me to 4th and Kevin will probably bump me to 5th. I'm skipping 24 Hours of Afton and doing the last two MNSCS races instead. I've still got an outside shot at Top 4, plus we've still got team points on the line.

DNF

Derailleur Not Function. Duluth Not Favorite. Did Not Finish.

Second year in a row I've crashed out of this race. Guy in front of me goes over a log pile in front of a bridge. He knocks a log loose (which comes flying towards me) and goes down. I avoid the log, get around him and onto the bridge, but my momentum carries me too far left. Back wheel slips over the edge, derailleur snaps and I go down down hard onto a shingle covered bridge. Bike is toast and my arm is shredded. I was 5th place in the middle of Lap 2 and feeling good. I had about a 2 minute gap on the guys behind me, and I was reeling in a couple guys in front of me. I'm still pissed off today. I know there's nothing you can do about that kind of stuff, but it's frustrating as hell to finally be feeling good and riding well on perhaps the toughest course in the series only to have your bike explode.

So, weekend summary:
Saturday pre-ride: gash/dent shin on rock (the kind of pain that makes you feel like puking)
Driving-5 hours, $50 in gas
Hotel - $175
Meals- $50
Race - $32
Derailleur replacement/hangar repair (if hangar can be bent back) - $250-300
You do the math, I don't want to know.

Then driving home, driver's side windshield wiper literally explodes. There's metal scraping the glass and I can't see. So we had about a 20 minute detour to deal with that. Then at North Branch there's an accident so we are stop and go for about 15 minutes. I haul ass and make it to the bike shop in Shoreview at 4:58 and they are all leaving and have locked up for the day. Best day ever. Oh, I won a Trek baseball hat and a Giro water bottle at the race, so I guess that makes it worthwhile. Best $600 water bottle ever.

Welch photos

Some more pics from Sunday. Thanks Dana!

MNSCS # 7, Welch

Always fun to race the former NORBA national course. We prerode on Saturday in a monsoonal downpour, and most of the course was unridable. It rained more Saturday night, so I feared the worst for Sunday. The course was actually in pretty good shape, with some muddy spots where you had to run up.

It was a mass start of 98 riders that starts up a climb. I didn't want to go too hard on the prologue lap, but I didn't want to get stuck in any traffic jams either. So I found a good tempo and hit the singletrack about 10 back. I passed a few people who went too hard and by the first big climb on lap 1 I was doing okay. Some of the singletrack was still greasy, so the first lap was all about trying to find the best lines through, and knowing when to get off and run. I misjudged a couple of sections which cost me a bit. Then came "the Wall". This is a super steep climb straight up the ski run. I couldn't find a dry line through it so I had to run the middle section. I was able to recover a bit in the singletrack and was settling into a good pace, feeling good on a technical climb when my front wheel suddenly went sideways and I went down. No injuries or mechanicals, but it cost valuable time.

As I rolled through for Lap 2 I was in 14th overall, with no idea where I was in my age group. I was really suffering on the first big climb, but managed to pass a couple of guys. Had to walk part of the Wall again, but was able to ramp it up after that. I got passed coming out of the singletrack and played leapfrog with another guy for the last half of the lap. First guy held me off, but I was able to pull away from the other guy on the last climb and passed a singlespeeder on the downhill switchbacks. 5th place in my age group, 13th out of 98 overall. Next week, Spirit Mountain.

Photo from Skinnyski.com (thanks!)

Disco is Dead

If the most dominant team in cycling for the past 9 years can't find a sponsor, who will be next? I'm hoping this trend doesn't trickle down to the local club level. But right now, who can blame anyone for not wanting to be associated with the embarrassment that was the Tour this summer?

24 Hours of Afton

I think I'm in. I have to decide by tomorrow to hit registration cutoff or else the price goes way up day of race.

Doors

I've got 5 out of 6 doors installed, and one side of the trim. It looks so much better already. I have to notch out the last door jamb to fit the attic stairs. I'm not looking forward to that.

Todays Doper Update

TDF winner Alberto Contador has announced he will be giving a press conference on Friday. Will it be Floyd Landis all over again? Story on VeloNews. Andrey Kashechkin tested positive for homologous blood doping and was suspended from Astana. Astana is making T-Mobile look like choir boys. I'm still waiting for Kloden to get busted.

Am I crazy?

I've been having serious thoughts of doing the 24 Hours of Afton solo. The sleep deprivation would be good training for when the baby gets here in October. Am I crazy? We'll see how my next two races go. I will probably not decide until a few days before the race.

2 Months to Go

Zoe keeps sniffing Jen's stomach. I think she knows somethings going on.

35W Bridge Collapse

http://flickr.com/photos/s4xton/sets/72157601157770382/

These photos are unreal. Having driven over this bridge literally thousands of times, it definitely hits home. Especially considering the what ifs. What if my wife would have left work just a bit later than usual that day and her bus drove over the bridge at 6:00 instead of 5:00? Or what if I hadn't exited before the bridge since I was running late on my way downtown Wednesday? The last 3-4 times I've driven down for the Hill Ride on Wednesday evenings, I've pretty much flipped a coin as to whether or not I should take 35W to downtown or take 280. The last time I took the bridge, traffic crept from University to the Hiawatha exit, so this time since it was already 5:45, I decided to exit on 280. I made it across the river on Franklin Ave right about 6:00. God only knows what would have happened if I had just kept going south on 35W, just as I had so many times before.

On our ride, I kept hearing people's cell phones ringing, but thought nothing of it. Heard lots of sirens, thought nothing of it. When we rolled back to Minneapolis on River Road and saw masses of people out walking, I thought there must be some kind of event going on. Once back at the Birchwood at about 8:00 I heard the bridge had collapsed and there were dozens of cars in the river. As I made my way out of Seward and across Lake Street I saw entire neighborhoods gathered in front yards listening to their radios. State Patrol was out in force on 35W north of 36, shutting down the freeway and setting up detours. My cell phone was useless with the volume of calls, and Jen was at home wondering for 3 hours which way I had taken downtown.

I got home around 9:00 and Jen gave me a big hug when I walked in the door. I saw the footage on TV and then heard what time it happened. That's when it all began to sink in. Absolutely insane.

Holy Sh!t

My wife's bus was on this bridge an hour before this happened. I was driving down 35W on my way to the Birchwood for the Hill Ride at 6:00. I decided to take Hwy 280 to avoid the traffic by the Metrodome. I'd like to give a shout out to my guardian angel.
Photo from NY Times